A Catch in the Clockwork
by premium audrey
Summary: Kushina needs to come home. Who else will fix the obsolete colossus still working in the office? An expeirment in allegory, metaphor and analogy with clocks and chickens. A Naruto, Minato, Kushina family fic.


At 6:00 Naruto's alarm clock went off. At 6:01 he turned it off, got out of bed, and went downstairs to start the coffee. From 6:05 until 6:20, while the coffee brewed, Naruto spent time with his chickens.

One of Naruto's first D-rank missions had been a labor mission for a research company in Konoha. They were trying to understand the development of fetuses and heredity. Rather than conducting experiments on mammals and humans, the company had done its research with chickens.

When Naruto had first seen the chickens he was in awe. It was like a phantasmagorical menagerie made solely of chickens. Chickens with one leg, chickens with no necks, chickens with wings branching from necks too long to hold up properly, chickens with three eyes and no beaks, chickens with no eyes and three legs, two heads, two ends, hens with combs, roosters that laid eggs- Naruto had gaped in bare awe at the disturbing sight. Something twisted in him as he watched so many drag themselves around the yard with disabled legs and bent wings.

He had stayed there with his team as Kakashi-sensei had discussed the terms of the mission with the employer. Sasuke had smirked at him and Sakura had glared at him as he chased the chickens around, running in circles for a long time before he learned to corner a target in to catch it.

At 6:30 Naruto walked through his house with two cups of coffee and some toast.

_Grn. Grn. Grn._

He could hear the struggle of the clock trying to tic properly, trying to fill its function. A futile and desperate task, Naruto thought.

_Grn. Grn. Grn._

Naruto knocked once and stepped into his dad's office. His dad was asleep, the papers on his desk scattered and forgotten temporarily.

_Grn. Grn. Grn._

Naruto eyed the old grandfather clock in the corner of his dad's home office. It squeaked sometimes. It didn't keep time very well; it never had, but mom had been there to fix it. He looked at its familiar face- the moons and suns swirling across the surface, the stars rotating through a cut out window in the face, the ornate numbers, the glass door in the front that revealed its rusted inner workings. It was stuck. It was always stuck, it seemed.

_Grn. Grn. Grn._

Naruto had offered long ago to let his dad borrow his alarm clock. It was sturdy and ran on batteries, so it kept time very accurately, unlike the colossus in the corner. It would never be as noble or important as the grandfather clock, but it was ultimately more successful in its purpose.

When he told his dad this, he only received a chuckle and a far-off, dejected look that very quickly came to rest on the clock in question. They had stood there looking at it together for a long time before he received a reply.

"This clock isn't here to tell time anymore, Naruto. It's an automata clock; they aren't very precise and require lots of fine tuning to be remotely accurate. Right now, it's just… it's here to provide awe." His tone was solemn and wistful. "Clocks have come a long way since it was built, but it's still here…"

"Because it's a wonder," Naruto didn't say. "Because even if it can't do its job correctly without Mom here, it's still an incredible..." it was no longer a clock, Naruto realized. It was something else entirely. It was obsolete as a time keeper and still held the regard of everyone who used clocks.

Naruto smiled.

_Grn. Grn. Grn._

"I understand Dad."

_Grn. Grn. Grn._

Naruto placed the coffee and toast on his father's desk and looked to the armchair in the corner. He smiled at the sleeping form there and pulled the blanket tighter over the legs that had been twisted since he was born.

At 7:00 Naruto met with his team at the gates of Konoha. He couldn't eat he was so nervous. He was finally going to see his mother again. Finally she could fix that- that damn clock.

Once Naruto had caught a chicken he had scarcely been able to keep his hands on it. The chicken hand had to come over and shown him how to hypnotize it.

"Hold its legs with one hand," the chicken hand demonstrated, "and run your hand in a circle over its head. It makes them tame, so you won't turn into chicken scratch."

Naruto tried it; he was fairly successful. The chicken hand smiled and left; work was over for him.

Naruto had immediately gone to show Sakura his new discovery. She had been impressed and giggled as he puffed up his chest and offered the chicken for her to pet. Sasuke had even reached out and hesitantly stroked a feather. Naruto had been so pleased.

At 12:30 Naruto thought he would throw-up if the ship on the horizon didn't learn how to teleport soon.

If it wasn't the ship they were waiting for, Naruto wasn't sure what he would do. He checked his wrist watch again and for a moment was lost in its steady beat.

On his left, Sakura seemed almost as anxious as he was. On his right, Sasuke offered him a supportive look. He could only wait. Naruto hated waiting.

The mission objective had been to kill the chickens- wring their necks and pluck them and cut them up to be served in the cafeteria. They were failed experiments, the project supervisor had said, they were no longer necessary because all the information that could possibly be taken from them had been taken. They were no good as normal chickens, so they would be killed. Naruto had been able to taste the bile in his throat.

Half of them, the most impeded ones, were dead by the time Kakashi-sensei decided they were done for the day. Naruto couldn't sleep.

He stole all the chickens that night. They didn't deserve to die. They had done all they could for the company and now they were going to be cast aside because of the ramifications.

Naruto didn't have it in him to let it happen.

But finally, the ship docked and she was there and she looked the same as she always had. Her hair was long and her figure was strong, and there was a weight in her eyes that Naruto didn't recognize, but he didn't care just yet. Naruto threw himself around her and sobbed. He couldn't hear her pulse through her thick cloak, but he could hear the ticking of her pocket watch, the one that matches the clock in the office. For the first time since she left Naruto feels there might be hope- hope for his irreparable chickens and that damn clock.

At 6:30 Naruto's team arrives in Konoha. Plans are made for his mother, Kushina- _his mother!- _to meet with the Hokage. Naruto takes her home and makes her a grilled cheese sandwich. They talk about the years she has been gone and it is almost as though she didn't leave at all. Naruto doesn't want to break the moment, but he must ask.

"Dad's usually not busy around this time, do you want to-"

"No! No, I just… I'll see him later." Her voice trembles, "just… can I see his office?"

_Grn. Grn. Grn._

So he takes her there. It hurts that she even asks; he wonders if this is really her home anymore.

_Grn. Grn. Grn._

She looks around the office, meandering from shelves to tables to the desk, caressing the books and scrolls, before arriving to stand in front of the grandfather clock.

_Grn. Grn. Grn._

Naruto can't explain the nervous feeling he has as she tinkers with the clock, first with the face, then with the innards. She reaches in, grasps something carefully, gives it a sharp pull, and-

_Grn. Grnnnnnn_**ic. Tic. Tic. Tic.**

He can't explain his tears.

At 10:00 Naruto stands with his mother in front of the Hokage's office. If he was at all nervous at the docks, it was only a drop in the bucket compared to this. He knows his mother feels the same; he can feel the nervousness come off her in waves and is drowned by it.

At 10:05 the Hokage calls them in. His mother follows him in. The change on the Hokage's face- _on his father's face- _is immediate. "Kushina…"

Naruto turns to look at his mother. She is crying. She is leaning over the desk, on the desk, kissing the Hokage as if she wasn't gone for years on end, and Naruto is so relieved.

"I found it."She ducks her head to wipe away her tears before looking at the Hokage again, her smile blinding through her tears. "I found a way! I can fix them!"

She is kissing him again, kissing him so hard his wheelchair is pushed back, and she is pushing herself into his lap, sitting on his twisted legs supported by clockwork braces, running her hands over the gears and scars.

Naruto keeps his tears in check and grins in happiness. He's sure his chickens will be fine.


End file.
